February 22, 1889.] 



SCIENCE 



149 



giving the student an opportunity to turn to account the study of 

 the preceding two parts, and to acquire a greater command over 

 the language and more self-confidence than by the process of mere 

 translation. Like its fellow-volume in German, this contains a 

 copious double vocabulary. 



Elements of Plane Analytic Geometry. By John D. Runkle. 

 Boston, Ginn & Co. 8°. $2. 



The author of this work is Walker professor of mathematics in 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Boston, and the 

 matter composing the first eight chapters of the book has been 

 used by the students of that institute for some few years. The 

 needs of the students have not been lost sight of in the preparation 

 of the book. Though it is necessary that they should become 

 reasonably familiar with the more elementary and fundamental 

 parts of the subject, still the time which they can devote to it is 

 limited. Therefore the earlier chapters are treated with somewhat 

 more fulness than is usual in books of the kind, and particular care 

 has been taken to illustrate and enforce all parts of the subject by 

 a large number of numerical applications. Only the simpler prob- 

 lems have been selected ; and an effort has been made to have the 

 number of problems proportioned to the time which the students 

 can profitably devote to them. The latter part of the book is based 

 on a treatise upon conic sections by Charles Smith, M.A., of 

 Cambridge, England, the later chapters following Mr. Smith's work 

 quite closely. Teachers and students besides those in the Institute 

 of Technology will find Professor Runkle's book adapted to their 

 needs. 



The Beginner's Reading Book. By Eben H. Davis. Philadel- 

 phia, Lippincott. 12'^. 42 cents. 



This little book contains a series of elementary lessons for 

 youngest readers, with appropriate pictorial illustrations, and in 

 these respects it does not differ essentially from other works of a 

 similar kind. But the author has a theory about the best method 

 of teaching children to read, and he explains his method in an in- 

 troduction. He begins his instructions by talking with his pupils 

 about the various objects provided for them, thus leading them to 

 frame brief sentences about the objects. These sentences are then 

 placed upon a blackboard in script letters, and the children are 

 taught to read them ; and not until some twenty weeks have been 

 spent in this way are the pupils to take up their reading-books and 

 begin to read print. Whether this is the best way to teach chil- 

 dren to read, experience must decide ; but it seems a roundabout 

 process. However, there is an old saying that the shortest way 

 across is sometimes the longest way round ; and so Mr. Davis's 

 method may, after all, be the best. 



customs, intellectual habits, art instincts, and moral standards of 

 the French being brought into juxtaposition with those that prevail 

 in the United States. They have also just ready a treatise on meta- 

 physics, by Dr. James McCosh, entitled "First and Fundamental' 

 Truths," which is regarded by the author as the copestone of what 



AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. 



We reproduce in this number three illustrations, " The Kitchen," 

 "Jim," and "Canadian Grouse," from "B.C. 1887," a book of 

 travel and adventure in British Columbia, published by Longmans, 

 Green, & Co., and reviewed lately in these columns. 



— A contest has long been waged among educators as to which 

 is of greater practical value in education, the classics or the sci- 

 ences. For many years the friends of the classics had it pretty 

 much their own way, but of late the scientists have been putting in 

 some strong pleas in behalf of their side of the case. The latest 

 of these, about to be issued in book form by S. C. Griggs & Co., 

 Chicago, is by the well-known author and scientist. Dr. Alexander 

 Winchell, University of Michigan, and is entitled, "Shall We Teach 

 Geology ? " Few. if any, American writers are better qualified for 

 discussing this question than Dr. Winchell. While his treatise is a 

 special plea for teaching geology in the public schools, it is intended 

 to cover the whole ground of contest between the sciences and the 

 classics, and hence promises to be of great interest, not only to 

 teachers, but to all who are interested in observing the tendencies 

 of modern education. 



— Charles Scribner's Sons have just ready " French Traits," by 

 W. C. Brownell, an analysis of French character and French society. 

 The method of criticism is comparative throughout, the social 



From "B.C. 



he has been able to do in philosophy, and in which he formulates 

 and explains the fundamental law governing the associated mental 

 exercises. Finally, they have a new and revised edition for 1889 of 

 Thomas A. Janvier's "Mexican Guide." 



— A. C. Armstrong & Son have just published three important 

 works on the Asiatic continent, — "Through the Heart of Asia over 

 the Pamir to India," by Gabriel Bonvalot, which has been translated 



Longmans^ Green^ &^ Co. 



JIM AND THE SORREL NAG. 



from the French by C. B. Pitman, and is published in two volumes, 

 with 250 illustrations by Albert Pepin ; " The Industries of Japan," 

 by Professor J. J. Rein of the University of Bonn, which gives an 

 account of the agriculture, mining, forestry, arts, and commerce, 

 from travels and researches in Japan, undertaken at the cost of the 

 Prussian Government ; and a second edition of the same author's 

 work on " Japan, Travels and Researches," which, by verdict of the 

 London Spectator, will be "the standard authority in such mat- 



